Headphone upgrade

darreny

darreny

darreny

Soldato
Joined
19 May 2004
Posts
3,017
Hi, currently have a pair of sennheiser hd515 that the foam pads has disintegrated on (where does it go?) so looking for a new set up to £200 at the very max ideally about £150.

Music tastes are quite wide open. Liking what I've read about akg k702 but how does the senn hd558/598 compare to those? Is it better to wait longer and save more and get the hd650 or k712?

Got a baby due in June so want open backed so I can still hear any background noises.

There's a distinct lack in the MM atm
 
Have seen them but it will be a credit card job till next pay comes in. I have a business paypal account so not sure if I can do gift
 
Yamaha dsp a1 for the time being. Good point tho as they will also be used with my laptop while working away.

Are the hd558 a big step up from the 515's and if so what would be a good pair of iem's for when out on bike or running with the remaining £50 - £100
 
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I think unless you're willing consider a headphone amp as well somewhere down the line, then easy to drive headphones would be more suitable.

558 are better than the 555, so certainly better than the 515. They can be modified to sound closer to the 598, but obviously, that would invalidate the warranty.

Couldn't say what IEMs you should consider, as I'm not a fan of them, so don't really look into them much.
 
Maybe Fidelio X1/X2? I have X1s and they're great, very easy to drive as well.

As for IEMs, I have shure 215s which are nice but probably isolate too much for running/cycling. Don't really know many others at that price range.
 
That's another set I have my eye on. Worried about the k701 with stuff like Steve nicks and 80s thrash metal but would love to try them for the detail with the one album I never tire of listening to 'war of the worlds'
 
My HD650's are sitting sulking on my mug tree lately, ever since I EQ'd my port modded K702s they can't get a look in. I slightly boosted the bottom end and rolled off the highs from 4k using the built in MusicBee equalizer and they sound superb. The extra sub-bass really adds a lot of punch without muddying the mids and the rolled off highs remove all of those offensive peaks without losing detail or scrunching the sound stage - HAPPY EARS :D

IEMs are going to be very dependent on your choice of music. A good choice would be the Rock Jaw "Alpha Genus" (£50) which comes with three pairs of screw in filters which give you a Beats clone, neutral or detail monster, depending on which you want to use at the time.
 
I've got the AKG K712 & even though they are opened back they won't leak much sound in !
Great headphones all the same....
 
Don't really know what else to say, open back so I can still hear background noise like the baby crying or telephone. Sound great with a wide variety of music and film. Amp provided by either asus dg or fx (can't remember) with headphone amp built in, yamaha dsp a1 that's going spare so might use optical out on motherboard and a yamaha rxv 1073 for main viewing
 
At your budget snag that HD650 that's on the MM. They are excellent headphones. Great mid section that competes with heavy hitters. The vocals are spectacular and the bass is decent.

Others options is the HD600 on amazon are around £200 now. They, like the HD650 are excellent. They sound similar to the current HD650 with a bit more of a bright character. Both will sound decent with anything and neither are that hard to drive.

If you want something a bit more aggressive sounding with great detail and more spacious sounding look into the AD900X. They are great headphones, really comfortable and good with anything.
 
The DG's amp is not good enough for the HD600/650 and output from a laptop, certainly isn't. Same applies to the headphone out on AV receiver also.

Makes sense though if the OP were to add a good headphone amp at some point, but if that's something he wants to avoid, then I'm not sure spending £200 on a headphone is the best idea, if he isn't going to get the best out of them.

ATH-AD900X, HD558/598, Fidelio X1/X2 will all work great without having to add a good amplifier.
 
While I agree on the asus card and laptop I'm sure the headphone out on the av amps would be more than adequate as the a1 was the flagship amp with no corners cut
 
The HD600 series really isn't that hard to drive. I think headfi has drilled into peoples heads that you need a power plant to drive everything. I find them rather easy to drive. You will loose some fullness with a standard laptop output but it doesn't sound terrible. It is a headphone to slowly build your system around but it's fairly inexpensive compared to building say a high end planar system. I much prefer the sound of the HD650 without an amp to the HD598.

I think the HD598 is a good headphone for specific things but it's a specialist headphone. It doesn't have a good bass response at all and is a dry headphone. It's great for detail whoring because of it's characteristics but it isn't really made to be an all-round phone.

I'm a believer of getting the most for your money. If he goes the 600 series route then he can build his system slowly if he wants but if not, they still sound good.

I go the DAP route rather than using a computer for my audio I find it quite cheap! my £89 Fiio X1 drivs my HD650 easy.

If you don't wanna do all that then look for a complete headphone that is easy to drive, i.e MA900, AD900X.

THere's some MA900's going for £190 but can't name the website. They are robably the best you are going to get that don't need an amp at all. They are warm, really spacious with decent imaging and fairly decent bass for a open dynamic.
 
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